Uncommitted delegate members linked arms and sang “ceasefire now” on the last night of the Democratic National Convention. At the end of their march, they gathered in a circle and multiple speakers delivered messages, ending their messages with the chant “I believe we will win.”
Yaz Kader, an Uncommitted delegate member from Washington, says this was not an act of protest against the Democratic National Convention.
“Simply put, we’ve had a long week. It has been a long four days, and we wanted to express our voices in these halls, and that’s what we’ve done.”
The Uncommitted Movement were delegates who voted uncommitted to show solidarity with Palestine. Which aims to take action against US support to the Israeli government.
“This has now grown where we are asking for an arms embargo so that we are not sending military weapons to the Israeli military,” Kader said.
The participants of the movement were collectively wearing pins which read “not another bomb”. These pins serve as a stance against Israeli use of American-made bombs. Participants were also wearing a black-and-white checkered scarf.
“[The black and white checkered scarf] was banned by the British in the early 1900s so Palestinians wore it as a sign of resistance. Many of us wear it to continue with the sign of resistance,” Kader said.
The Uncommitted Delegation had requested a Palestinian speaker at the Democratic National convention.
“We found out late last night that they were not going to honor that [request], and by not honoring that ask, it felt to some that we were not allowing the Palestinian voice within the convention hall over there, and that it was to be kept outside. It felt like censorship a little bit to us, and thus we come here and express ourselves,” Kader said.
